Method for locating the place of a liquid stratum in a well.



/NVE/l/TR TTUR/VEYS THus Beec'heif 9V T. A. B-EEOHER.

E oF

UID STRATUM IVN A WELL. 3, 1912.

A LIQ APPLICATION FILED Dnc. 1

' Patented Many/1,1914.

METHOD Pon LOUATING THB FLAG L .1421i -i lemilion.

Tr'rus ANDREW Banchieri, or wenn, canincanne.Y

toename 'man PLACE on A LIQUID sritf'iror/t 1N A Wam..

noteert.'

Speciticatidil di" Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. it. ieia.

Appneeuon inea December 1e, 1912. serial ne. 736.519.

TQaZZ @cho/m. t may concetti f' Be it known that l, Trrus A.

a citizen of the nited States, and a resi-4 dent of Tait, iiiy thecounty of Kern and State of California, have invented. a new andImproved VMethod for Locating the Place of aLiquid Stratulnina .Welhofviiieh the following is a full clear, and exact descriptioni Thismethod has for its b'jt the flo cation of the liquids in the grliiiddrilling a well or in a drilled well.

To carrylout the above stated object,` I

a predetermined pl the well then displacing colored liquid from thewell; tliengetting samples of 1i uid from differiit depths iii the wellan yasceltaining if istenoe of gases, the oil elnulsiiied in the" wateryand expensvemethods are necessary fior the separat-ion of the oil fromthe water. But not only is the presence of water dangelw ous to thisparticular well in which the water stratum is leaking but it isgenerally drowning the oil out from the strata interscted yby thisparticular welljfandnconseqeently a le injeneusie the enr-.ire en een.There are many 'methods for 'preventing .leakage of water from upperlayers into the oil strata; Ythe moet commonly employed beingcementation ofthe foot of casin passed below the water layers and.resting a `ove the oil strata. But there is no method for positiveassurance Athat the cementation is perfect and no leak between the shoecasing and the ground exists. It must also be remarked that in welldrilling the boring masters journal or diary will generally give thedepth of stratum from the surface and the thickness of the same, butanybody acquainted with well boring knows that is only closeapproximation. Where few strata are intersected", as the generalpractice is, without placing a casing for each intersected stratumcontaining liquid (which would be expensive and would reduce thediameter of the well so that it would become unexploitable)," it isimpossihle to say what that'stratum contains, as there is generally aliid already in the well.

In wells where oil strata are Hooded by water no oil can be extracteduntil the water is shut od from same. lt is not known where the waterenters into the well and in' `-vvhat partiei'ilar places, but theimportaf of shutting oli th@- water from oil strata is so great to theoil lieldstlxat1 States1 where oil fields exist have enacted lawsimposing heavypenalty for allowing water to enter oil stra Y It iseasily sce that before the water can be shut oil' it must be definitelknown whence this water comes, and to termine r'aetlythe location of thestratum that' snpplies .th tlat'eij1g have designed a method by means ofwiiflwl'e the depth at which a liquid enters into the well may Ebepositively established. Also when a liquid stratum 1s or plugged in awell by the sannev it may be ascertained as'to thecondition oi the plug:of cementation, that is, if a leak exists or not. While my method 1sprimarily designed for the purpose .of shutting off the'water stratafrom the oil lajeisi the same method may be used for shutting oil'liguid strata of the upper grounds from layers of water from ordinarywater, etc.

Reference is to lloe had to the accompany' ing drawings forming a partof this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding partsin all the views, and in which- I Fi 'ure i is asection through a drilled well showing thev diii'erent strata and1'illustrating my method; Fig. 2' is a similar section through a wellillustrating a modification of my meth d; Fig. 3 shows a leak in a casinof the well; and Fig. 4 is a partial sectiona view of a container forcoloring matter.

lReferring to Fig. 1 the well is shown as intersecting layers supplyingwater and oil. No deiinite information can be gotten-on the 'surfage ofthe well as to wherethe water comes from into the well as cementation ofthe shoe casing 10 was made after the casing 1l was forced below thelast water stratum. The fact that the oil stratum i3 was intersected wasestablished, but this did not prevent the continuation of the boringthrough a new stratum 1liv and even farther iquid strata lying in the plower grounds, or for separating mineralA the boring was continued. Whenthe bOring was stopped, oil was present in the well and no indicationsof water had been found. A casingr 15 was then lowered into the wellprovided atthe lower end with a strainer 16 projecting below the shoecasing 10 so that while preventing the flow of sand into the casing 15it admitted the liquid from the strata. After a certain length of timeeX- ploitation of the well 'water was detected in the same. Where thewater came from it was impossible to tell. It is possible thatoriginally the .hydrocarbon gas in the oil stratum 18 produced asuilicient pressure preventing the water from the strata 14 fromentering the well until a certain amount of oil was discharged from thewell and the pressure thereby was reduced, thus allowing the water toenter the well. It is alsov possible that a. leak originated .below theshoe casing l0, or may be the casing 11 itselfbegan to leak. Todetermine this I take a container A preferably of the form shown in Fig.fl andmade of sheet metal suiiiciently strong and perforated, and intowhich preferably solid coloring matter is placed.' The container is thenattached by means of a suspension from any boring implement by means ofwhich it is lowered into the well.

Since the liquid could exist only in a part, either near the shoe orbelow the shoe, as it must pass through the strainer, the container Awith the coloring matter is lowered into the well and reciprooatedbetween the shoe 10 and the bottom of the well. The coloring matter iswashed out through the perforations provided in the container A, anddiffused in the space between the shoe 10 and the bottom of the well.The specific gravity of the coloring matter being slightly greater thanthe water it has a tendency to settle in the bottom of the well. Theformation 'of the bottom and between the strata containing ,the liquidsmay be, as is general in wells, of shale, slate or limestone, and notsupposed torco'ntain anylliquid. After a certain time kof agitation ofthecontainer A to allowythe eoloring matter within to dissolve in thelace between the shoe 10 and the bottom, tlie container is-withdrawn.-

As shown in Fig 1, the strata 13 and 14 supply liquid, the casingl," andby bailing or pumping-out from thetop, thatis, from the natural level ofthe well'these two strata will supply the liquid to maintain the naturallevel in the wells. ln consequence of this ilow from the strata 13 and14, the coloring matter in suspension will be carried up. This dischared liquid can then be analyzed, as describe and claimed in my pendingapplication. The coloring matter below the stratum 14 will remain insuspension and will not be carried awa by the flow from the strata as itlies be ow this particular' flow. When the liquid in the well above' thesupplying strata 'is displaced by a liquid not contaminated with'thecoloring matter so that there is no more coloring matter in thedischarged liquid, a bailer is lowered to take samples at graduallyincreasing depths, and by discharging the bailer on the surface it canbe seen if the samples contain any coloring matter. As can be seen fromFig. 1, when a point below the stratum 14 is reached with the bailer,the bailer will contain a sample of the coloring matter within, thuslocating the position of a stratum, the depth being known from thelength of the cable and the bailer. If there should be a iiow of liquidfrom the bottom of the well, the ycoloringr matter shown in the bottomof Fig. 1 would be carried away Awhen bailing from the natural level ofthe well, and consequently if coloring matter should not be found whenlocating or bailing for samples, it would indicate that the leak iscoming from the bottom of the well. To determine if there is anotherliquid stratum above the liquid stratum 14, the casing 15 must be raisedsuiiiciently high to permit the construction o1 bridge or plug above thestratum 14: in the ground formation of the strata 13 and 14, and again,by a similar method it can be determined if any liquid is coming fromunder said bridge and also the position of the stratum 13. The characterof the stra-tum can be determined by the method explained in my pendingapplication and consi-stinginnsing such coloring matten-that/will giveonly aparticular color with a liquid supposed to be in the well or whichcan be detected by chemical or special analysis.

In Fig. 2 a dilferent method is shown for the determination of thedepthof a liquid stratum, in which case, after the container A is loweredwith the coloring matter and the coloring matter diiiused in the desiredplace, the container is raised from the well and water is pumped fromthe top into the well.

The coloring matter above the stratum is forced to difluse into thestratum, and due to the quantity of liquid in the same, it will be lostwhile the coloring matter in suspension below the lowest stratum willremain in the well, `and by lowering the bailer and extracting samples,the exact location of the lower liquid stratum `can be determined, as

'can be easily seen.

Fig. 3 shows a leakage in a casing which can be determined byy eitherone of the two above described methods.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent 1. The method of ascertaining the location at whichliquid flows -into a well consistin in diusing coloring matter in thewel within the space where the flow of the liquid may be expected, thensubstituting a liquid not contaminated with said coloring matter in thewell, and then gettin samples of liquid from different known depths ofthe space in the well /where the said coloring matter was diiiused, and'ascertaining if 4the extracted samples contain said coloring matter.

2. The method of ascertaining the .location 'at which the liquid flowsinto the well, consisting in diffusing coloring matter in the wellWithin the space where the inflow of the liquid may be expected, thentending to displace the colored liquid in the Well by pumping or hailingand then getting samples of liquid from different known depths ofthespace in the well where the said coloring matter was diused, andascertaining if the extracted samples contain said coloring matter.

3. The method of ascertaining lthe location at which liquid flows into awell, consisting' in diiuslng coloring matter in the well within thespace Where the inflow of the liquid may be expected, then pumping orhailing the liquid from the natural level .of the Well so as to removethe coloring mat- TITUS. ANDREW BEECHER.

Witnesses: y

M. V. BEECHER, R. B. WHri'rnMomi.V

copies of this patent may be obtained tor ve 'cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patente.

Washington, '.D. C.

